Winter opening times

The museum is currently closed to visitors because of redevelopment work. We are consolidating the museum all on to one floor where previously the museum was split over two floors. We reopen on 1st April and look forward to seeing you then.

About the museum

There are over 1200 pieces on show, including many unique and never before seen pieces, in two galleries.

The Studio gallery, the larger of the two, focuses on the Isle of Wight's many studio glass makers, particularly Isle of Wight Studio Glass, but also Diamond Isle Sculptured Glass, Glory Art Glass and Alum Bay Glass as well as related studios such as Jonathan Harris Studio Glass. This gallery also has a stunning collection of Mdina glass made during the period when the Harris family were in Malta, between 1968 and 1972, many pieces signed by Michael Harris. Also, there are designs by Michael from the 1950s and when he was teaching at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1960s.

The museum is also building a collection of studio glass made by other British makers, such as Siddy Langley.

In our brand new gallery, opening in April 2018, we have a fascinating and growing collection of French, German and British Art Deco glass. The focus is on glass made or designed by/for Edmond Etling, Pierre D’Avesn, Verlys, Sabino, Jobling, Stuart Crystal, John Walsh Walsh and WMF.

The museum has educational facilities catering for group visits, including schools and colleges, of up to 35 people. Our library is accessible to scholars and collectors by appointment.

Museum redevelopment

The museum opened in March 2016 after a great deal of work. But we are not standing still. Our aim is to continually improve the visitor experience as resources allow. Currently we are making extensive changes to greatly enhance the visitor experience. These include a more exciting layout, storyboards and graphics, touch screen computers full of helpful information for visitors to use, and a library. We are aiming to install these improvements during January to March 2018.

As part of the redevelopment work the museum shop will close. But online sales will continue uninterrupted via this web site.

Blog

Nature in Art has organized a special exhibition at Wallsworth Hall in Gloucestershire entitled "The Harris Dynasty" from 20th March to 15th April 2018. As well as items from the private collection of the Harris family about 50 pieces have been loaned by Isle of Wight Museum of Glass for the exhibition. In total about 200 pieces are on show. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

The museum recently acquired a dozen pieces of opalescent glass animals and sculptures by Sabino of Paris to add to the growing collection of Art Deco glass made by French contemporaries such as Etling, D'Avesn, Verlys and Lalique. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

An article about the museum was publsihed in the Spring/Summer 2017 edition of The Glass Cone, the magazine of The Glass Association. The Chairman of the Association, Brian Clarke, has given permission to reproduce the article here - PDF 4.15 MB. We hope you enjoy reading it. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

The museum has a small and growing collection of Victorian glass. But the Victoriana we are talking about here is not over a hundred years old, but a trial collection designed by Timothy Harris of Isle of Wight Studio Glass. We bought the first piece from the range in 2011 and thought it would be impossible to add to it. But amazingly we recently acquired four more pieces. Just two other pieces in the range are known. It is quite possible they are all unique. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

Award winning glass jewellery maker Linda Newnham is exhibiting some of her amazing jewellery designs at the museum. We are delighted she has chosen us as the first public exhibition of her work. I recently interviewed Linda about how she started out making glass and the things that inspire her designs - it makes for interesting reading. Additionally, she has kindly provided several pictures of her work presented here in a gallery. I am sure you will agree with me that the jewellery is absolutely stunning! - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

We are pleased to announce that our online shop can now take card payments and bank transfers directly online using a service provided by PayPal. Please note that a PayPal account is not required but it will simplify the payment process if you have one. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

The museum is working hard to improve the visitor experience. Clearly, visitors need to find us and once in the museum know what they are looking at. To help with that the museum commissioned a series of directional signs at Arreton Barns and signs inside the museum. They are now in place. And they look great! - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

After three months as coordinator, Bernadette Connolly decided to leave the museum. But we welcome Nicola Harris and her daughter Ffleur to the team. If you recognise the names then, yes, they are of the same Harris family that runs Isle of Wight Studio Glass next door to the museum. Nicola will help the museum director with back office tasks and Ffleur will join Tina Gormer in the museum to welcome visitors, assist at the sales counters, deal with enquiries over the phone, and run the museum on a day-to-day basis. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0

The museum was delighted and honoured to be invited to exhibit at the National Glass Fair held in May at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull. The fair was possibly the best place to promote the museum to real enthusiasts of glass. We put on show a cabinet full of the best work by Isle of Wight glass makers and share some pictures here. - Click here to read more - Comments: 0